'Greatest Generation' still operating

There's "stuff" out there that can only show up in a column named "Stuff."

There's the $7,300 bottle of Last Man's Whiskey for starts.

Bob Hoover and Don Eggerton were the last two men in the "Last Man Standing Club" at AMVETS Post 26 in Mansfield.

And they made it count.

In 1950, 78 young war veterans started the club. A bottle of prime whiskey was put in a glass case and would be opened by the last man.

Hoover and Eggerton decided to make that bottle pay off for today's veterans.

There were 17 ounces of whiskey left in that bottle and they were auctioned off recently ounce by ounce.

That auction raised $7,300, which went to Resurrecting Life of Dublin, a group that helps distressed war veterans get back on their feet emotionally.

The last bid was for the bottle itself. The winner had the empty bottle put back in its glass case.

When's the last time an ounce of very aged whiskey went for that kind of money?

That's good stuff.

So was a recent reunion at the Good Shepherd Nursing Home in Ashland.

Only a week or so ago a story about World War II veteran Herb Shafer served with an infantry unit in Europe that ended their war by liberating the notorious death camp at Dachau.

As it turned out, one of them was an American prisoner of war being held in that camp was living just a few corridors down from Shafer.

Terry Brant, the nursing home's activity director, said Eugene Shoemaker was a prisoner in Dachau.

She said Shafer and Shoemaker had a small reunion and that tears flowed as they recalled those hard days.

While Shoemaker reportedly suffers from memory loss, his meeting with Shafer opened up some old doors.

"I'm sure nothing like this happens very often,'' Brant said.

Incidentally, "Tony" Cardino, another veteran and a former boxer, is living about halfway down the hall from Shafer and Shoemaker. "Tony," a former regular at the Mansfield Y, was featured several years ago in yet another veteran's story.

He's on oxygen but just as feisty as ever. Some folks at the Mansfield Y might want to visit "Tony" at his new digs.

About one year ago this writer decided that the number of World War II and Korean War veterans had dwindled to the point where the series might have to change course.

It started in January of 2001 and has never missed a beat except with the writer was ill or shopping in Alaska.

But suddenly there seems to be any number of veterans willing to be interviewed.

My guess is that between family requests and a wish to have a final word may have motivated many of these veterans to agree to interviews.

So the "Greatest Generation" is still in business. And hopefully for a few years to go.

Ron Simon is a retired reporter, award-winning columnist and veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces. He can be reached at ronsimon@neo.rr.com.